


The Soured Superpower

by jayofmo



Category: DCU, Elongated Man - Fandom, The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-22
Updated: 2016-05-22
Packaged: 2018-06-09 23:05:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6927877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jayofmo/pseuds/jayofmo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Following on my previous Elongated Man story, "A New Stretch," here's a story inspired by the double-issue story "Double Dose of Danger" and "Don't Mess With The Molder!" from The Flash v1 #252-253. Although the original story was a wacky one, reimagining it for the current Flash TV universe made it take some darker turns, so be warned, there's some disturbing moments in this story.</p><p>Returning to Central City, Ralph prepares to make a TV appearance. Spoiler: he doesn't make it there.</p><p>(The violence isn't that graphic, and the "death" isn't an actual death, but I figured I should include those warnings anyway.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Soured Superpower

“It's _so_ difficult keeping a low profile when you're a _famous superhero_ ,” Ralph commented to Sue as they left the restaurant. He chuckled.

 

She returned the laugh. “It'll come one day,” she said. “It's not like you defeated a major supervillain.”

 

Ralph grinned. “Of course! No one wants to go up against the Elongated Man!”

 

Sue looked down at her hand. Specifically, the simple but shiny diamond ring on her finger.

 

“And hopefully, Mrs. Dibny won't become a target,” she sighed. “But I knew that might happen when you proposed, and I said yes anyway.”

 

He hugged her. “You're the best, babe. Anyway, it's not like Captain Cold will attack the wedding.”

 

“Life isn't a comic book, you know.” She kissed him.

 

He held her hand as they walked back to the hotel. As soon as they got back to their room, Ralph checked the clock.

 

“Okay, I have to be on Good Morning Central City Live in an hour, time to take my dose.” He went to the bathroom and returned with a small vial. “Last one I got.”

 

“I'll have to get my makeup ready,” Sue commented. She walked into the bathroom.

 

Ralph opened the vial and gave it a sniff.

 

“Okay, that doesn't smell right,” he said. “It's probably just gone a little sour.”

 

“Sure you should drink it?” Sue asked.

 

“They're expecting the Elongated Man. What's it going to do, make me nauseous? I'll just pop some Tums.” He lifted the vial to his lips and downed it. He grimaced as the sour liquid left a bad taste in his mouth.

 

“Okay… I'll have to be more careful in my batches… Augh!” Ralph grabbed his stomach and fell to the floor, slamming into the wall.

 

Sue hurried out of the bathroom to find Ralph writhing on the floor. 

 

“Ralph! What's going on?”

 

Ralph looked up at her, his teeth clenched, sweat pouring from his face. His body began to grow, turning from the lanky young man she'd known to someone far more muscled and stocky.

 

“Get to Star Labs!” he gasped. “They can keep you safe!”

 

“From what?”

 

“FROM ME!” Ralph gasped before collapsing on the floor.

 

“Ralph?” Sue called. She looked down at him. His face had changed. Ralph's face was normally thin, but now it was thick with a pronounced chin with a cleft and a hard rounded nose.

 

She shook him. “Ralph?”

 

His eyes popped open. While they were still blue, the familiar glint she'd known in them were gone. They looked up at her. The face they were in grinned.

 

“Well, hey, pretty lady,” he said in a rough voice. It sounded nothing like him. It was as if he'd turned into a different person.

 

Sue reached for her purse and began to inch for the door.

 

“Honey, stop it...” she said hesitantly. “This isn't funny.”

 

The strange man's tongue rolled around on his lips. “Honey? Hey...” He reached for her.

 

“Don't TOUCH me!” Sue cried. She kicked him, knocking him over on his back and hurried out the door.

 

 

Sue arrived at STAR Labs and hurried out of her car and into the building. She needed to find Cisco Ramon. She hurried and walking briskly through halls, walked into the lab she was looking for.

 

Cisco looked up from his desk. “Do we even have security here?” he asked. “Hey, … Sue, was it?”

 

“Yeah, and it's not like your doors are even locked,” she commented. “Anyone seems to be able to get in here.”

 

Cisco sighed. “Where's Ralph?”

 

“That's why I'm here, he drank some sour gingold and suddenly started thrashing around, changing, and warned me to come here so you could protect me from him. Then he passed out. He woke up, looked different, acted different, and didn't seem to know me. I don't know what happened, but… Ralph's gone. Whoever that was… it wasn't him.”

 

Cisco nodded. "Okay," he sighed. "So, weird stuff going down."

 

"You don't seem too upset by it," Sue observed.

 

"I've seen a lot." He put on a headset. "Hey, Flash, we need you to check something out."

 

 

Barry Allen zoomed into the hotel room. It was eerily quiet, and no one seemed to be in the room.

 

"Ralph?" called Barry warily. "Hey, buddy, what's going on?"

 

Silence.

 

Barry stepped into the bedroom section of the room. The room was still in disarray. The curtains were blowing wildly.

 

"Did he go out the window?" Barry said to himself, stepping forward. He pulled the curtain aside and stepped back in surprise.  
  
The window and the wall had a hole in them. They were not broken, it looked as if they were a sheet of wax and had been melted. But it didn't look so messy. It looked neat and clean, as if it had been… molded that way…

 

Barry looked out the hole, large enough for a person to step out of. On the ground—the hotel room was on the second floor—Barry could see the imprint of two feet. This was strange. The concrete wasn't broken, it looked as if someone had jumped onto it, and the concrete had contoured to their feet.

 

As Barry was wondering what on earth had happened, he got a call in his earpiece.

 

“Barry, it's Joe,” came the voice of Barry's surrogate father over the line. “There's sightings of a metahuman in the park.”

 

“Anything you can tell me about them?” Barry asked, preparing to dash out.

 

“Just that they're able to do weird stuff to whatever they touch.”

 

Barry wondered if this was connected to what he'd found.

 

“I'll be right there,” he said and ran to the park.

 

 

Barry stopped in amazement. Lamp posts had not only been bent, but tied into knots like string. Benches resembled wads of chewing gum. Although Barry had gotten there nearly instantly, many people had already left the park, with the rest of them hurrying away. Finding the culprit would be easy: he'd be the only one not leaving.

 

Sure enough, seconds later, Barry saw him. A tall, stocky man with a hard, round nose, ruddy hair, blue eyes, and a cleft chin. He was stretching out a park bench before flattening it like a piece of paper on the ground.

 

“Hey there,” Barry called. He pressed his chest piece, giving Cisco a video feed of what was going on.

 

The man turned and scowled at Barry.

 

“Hey yourself,” he growled. “You're the Flash, right?”

 

“Correct.”

 

Back at Star Labs, Sue gasped. “That's him… what's he doing?”

 

“He's changing the shape of everything he touches with his bare hands,” Cisco observed. “He's a… Molder.”

 

“It's terrifying.”

 

“It is,” Cisco said quietly. “But also pretty cool.” He opened the line. “Barry, Sue confirmed it, that's Ralph right there.”

 

Barry looked back at the man. “Ralph?” he asked.

 

The man looked disgustedly at him. “That's not my name.”

 

“You're Ralph Dibny, the Elongated Man!”

 

“Why would I go and call myself a dumb name like that for?” the Molder snarled.

 

“Look, I don't know what happened to you, how you became this… Molder, but we can fix this!”

 

“Fix this?” the Molder laughed. “Why would I want to be fixed?”

 

Barry grabbed him. “Come on, we'll take you to Star Labs, they'll figure out what's wrong with you...”

 

The Molder pried Barry's arm off of him.

 

“Buddy, ain't NOTHING wrong with me!” Then he glowered at Barry. “But there's about to be plenty wrong with you!”

 

Barry watched in horror as his arm turned into a shapeless mass, his costume, skin, flesh and bone all turning into a putty-like substance together.

 

“Ralph...” Barry gasped. “No...”

 

Until this moment, Barry had thought there must be a shred of Ralph left in the Molder somewhere. But no, the eyes looking back at him were cruel and intent on reducing all of Barry into the same putty that his arm had been transformed into.

 

“When I'm finished with you, Flash,” the Molder chuckled, “they'll have to pick you up with a putty knife.”

 

Barry realized he could have run, but it was too late. His body was turning into the same putty. He was sinking into himself as the Molder ran his hand up Barry's shoulder.

 

“Ralph,” Barry gasped. “Please… remember Sue… remember who you are…”

 

The Molder twinged, then taking hold of the top of Barry's head, pushed it down, completing Barry's transformation from a superhero into a puddle.

 

“Don't mess with the Molder,” he grunted.

 

Satisfied, the Molder stood up. “Star Labs, huh?” he said to himself. “Guess I know where I'm headed next if they think they can stop me.”

 

 

Cisco gaped as the video stream suddenly cut out.

 

“Barry?” he asked over the line. “Barry?”

 

No reply.

 

Sue was in tears. “He killed him… Ralph killed the Flash!”

 

Cisco thought. Barry had clearly mentioned Star Labs, and the Molder—Cisco could not think of him as Ralph now—would easily find his way there.

 

“Okay,” Cisco said. “Ralph's powers are triggered by gingold, and you said his dose right before… well… was sour, right?”

 

Sue nodded.

 

“All right then… how long does Ralph have his powers when he takes the gingold?”

 

“About twenty four hours,” Sue replied, “a whole day.”

 

Cisco nodded. “So, basically until the gingold is out of his system.”

 

Sue sighed. “Are you saying we have to wait for tomorrow for him to change back?”

 

Cisco thought.

 

“That's not an option,” she went on. “He's unstoppable, and we saw what he did to the Flash. Imagine if he did that to someone else! He's going to feel awful once he realizes what he did. But to know he actually...”

 

“We're going to force it out,” Cisco said. “I need to make a couple calls. Keep an eye on the security monitor and tell me if you see him. Things are going to be getting hot in here.”

 

 

Joe West spotted the Molder from his car. “Hey, there, buddy, need a lift?”

 

The Molder looked suspiciously at Joe. “That's not a typical offer.”

 

“I'm not pulling anything funny,” Joe replied. “Just thought you could use one.”

 

“Well, if anything funny does happen, I'll make sure you regret it,” the Molder warned. “Fine. I need a lift to Star Labs.”

 

“Hop on in,” Joe said, smiling.

 

The Molder nodded and headed around the car to the passenger's side seat. As he did so, Joe quickly sent a text message. “Got him,” it read.

 

The trip was short and made quietly. The Molder wasn't one for small talk, and given what could happen if Joe let it slip what he was trying to do, Joe wasn't in a mood to chat.

 

The Molder got out in front of  his destination . “Well, thanks, bud,” he  said quietly.

 

“Any time,” Joe replied. He pulled away and made his way to the park.

 

T he Molder watched him drive away, making sure that there wasn't any last-second “funny business” going on. He had a suspicion that something was up, but what, he wasn't sure. But at least it didn't seem like that guy meant to interfere further. Time to make sure whoever was at Star Labs wouldn't either. He sneered and marched to the door.

 

“Welcome to Star Labs!” came Cisco's voice over the intercom. “Pleased to make your acquaintance, Mr. Molder, enjoy your stay.”

 

The Molder looked around. He bristled.

 

“You're probably wondering where I am,” Cisco continued. “Well, as they say, that's for me to know and you to find out. Good luck.”

 

The Molder marched to a door and pulled it open, melting off the handle.

 

“GOD!” he bellowed. “What is WITH you people? It's like an OVEN in here!”

 

“How very observant,” Cisco said. “We're checking our heating systems. Why the middle of July? Why not? Isn't it nice, so warm and so humid?”

 

The Molder looked up and saw a camera.

 

“I'll find you...” he promised. He wiped some beads of sweat off his forehead.

 

“Feel free to destroy more doorknobs,” Cisco went on. “We can replace them from petty cash. You should see what I spend on spandex and leather every week.”

 

Sue watched the monitor carefully. “Are you sure he'll be all right?” she asked.

 

Cisco shook his head. But he didn't have to explain that he wasn't actually doing this to save Ralph: he was doing it so the Molder wouldn't hurt anyone else. If Ralph could go back to his normal form and mind, all the better.

 

The Molder was angrily opening doors only to find labs devoid of people, thanks to the few calls Cisco had made. But he did find a lot of heat building up in Star Labs. He was swearing profusely. He was getting angrier. Not only the heat, but as he kept opening doors, the knobs and locks were taking longer to get through.

 

“WHY IS IT SO HOT IN HERE?” the Molder bellowed again.

 

“If you had two brain cells that actually connected, you might figure it out.”

 

The Molder was now beginning to breathe heavily, slowing down, his clothes soaked in sweat. He reached for the next door, and found he couldn't reshape it at all. He banged on the door, screaming before he panted and collapsed on the floor.

 

Sue zoomed in on the camera. To her relief, she saw the now unconscious Molder was shrinking, slimming down. “He's coming back...” she said happily. “He's coming back...”

 

“Good,” Cisco said. He tapped a few buttons and the air conditioning at Star Labs kicked back in, the heating core he'd activated and amplified a few times shutting off.

 

Sue went to the room where Ralph lay with a bottle of water Cisco had given her.

 

“Ralph?” she called. She crouched down next to him and kissed his familiar face. His eyes fluttered open.

 

“Sue?” he said weakly. He smiled. “Sue, baby… I…” He looked around, realizing where he was. “Oh, god… Sue…” He sat up and hugged her. “What did I do?”

 

“You're going to be all right,” she sighed. “You're going to be all right.”

 

“No… No I'm not… Sue… I killed the Flash!”

 

 

Hartley Rathaway and Joe carried in a board. On it, was the flattened pile that had one been the fastest man alive. Ralph shuddered. Sue hugged him.

 

“I'm sorry...” Ralph said. “If I could only prevent myself from taking that gingold this morning…”

 

Cisco sighed. “Okay… Don't be hard on yourself. Barry knew he put his life on the line when he put on the costume. That's what made him a hero.”

 

As he talked, he put his hand on the board, and suddenly, Cisco wasn't looking in the room anymore. He saw the mound ripple, spark, vanish, and then… Barry.

 

“He can come back!” Cisco gasped. “We can bring him back!”

 

Ralph looked up. “Really?”

 

Cisco ignored this and turned to Hartley. “We need to electrify it and vibrate Barry's body on the right frequency and the Flash is back!”

 

Hartley smiled. “Sounds like a plan, and you got just the right guy.”

 

Moments later, Cisco and Hartley  had everything ready. Joe, Ralph and Sue were just outside the room, watching from a window.

 

“NOW!” Cisco called. He applied two suction cups to what was left of Barry, and turned on the charge. At the same time, Hartley activated his sonic gloves and aimed them at Barry.

 

Everyone watched in excitement as the pile began to quiver, and with a crackle, they heard a ZOOM and the board was bare and Barry ran to a corner of the room, gasping for air. Cisco and Hartley cheered and began checking Barry as Joe, Ralph and Sue filed in.

 

“I'm just not sure how it happened,” Ralph said to Cisco.

 

“I think I figured it out,” Cisco remarked. “You have the Molder's powers as well as your elastic powers. Both of them are usually inactive. Fresh gingold triggers your elastic powers, but a sour one triggers the Molder.”

 

“Wow,” Barry commented, listening. “Imagine if you could trigger just the Molder's reshaping powers but keep your personality. You'd be very powerful!”

 

“It might be worth researching,” Cisco added. “Maybe you even have other powers you never suspected, just waiting for a trigger.”

 

“No,” Ralph replied. “This experience has been… well… pretty awful. In fact, I don't think the Elongated Man will be around for awhile. I'd rather just be Ralph for now.”

 

Sue hugged him. “That's all I want you to be.”

 

He kissed her.

 

“By the way, we are invited to the wedding, right?” Cisco asked.


End file.
